How did they apprehend Luigi so quickly?

And other thoughts on the UHC killer

United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered outside his hotel in midtown Manhattan on December 4th. His murder was caught on camera by a masked gunman, who then fled the scene on a bike share and seemed to have disappeared.

Five days later, police arrested Luigi Mangone in Altoona, PA, some 277 miles away. Initially arrested on gun charges, Mangone was later charged with Thompson’s murder.

I have no reason to think there is any kind of conspiracy - we know very little about any of the key details right now. I do think it is interesting, however, how quickly Mangone was caught. Here in Washington, DC, its not uncommon to hear about someone being shot and killed in the street. According to DC data, about half of those go unsolved. Last month, someone was shot and killed in Rock Creek Park. That remains unsolved. Last week, someone was shot and killed in a Denny’s. That remains unsolved.

Now, legally speaking, Brian Thompson’s homicide is not “solved” either. Mangone is innocent until proven guilty. But one wonders how many resources were devoted to quickly apprehending the murder of a high-profile, wealthy CEO as compared with virtually anyone else. In other words, was Mangone caught so quickly because officials decided it was a high profile case and therefore brought all available resources to bear? Were federal agencies involved at all?

The official story, as being reported in the media, is that Mangone was simply hanging out at a McDonald’s in the middle of rural Pennsylvania when someone recognized him and called the police. That could be true, though its worth noting that the only available photo we had of him prior to his arrest was one where he was wearing a hoodie over his head, covering half his face. Did someone at McDonalds almost 300 miles away from Manhattan really recognize him from this? Or was it also in combination with a coordinated, interstate manhunt?

I don’t know the answer to these questions and it may be that everything we are hearing is true. It is a very high profile case and has garnered a significant amount of public attention for a lot of different reasons. So it could make sense that Mangone was spotted by random people who were, like many Americans, obsessively following the case.

But if it is true that the search for Mangone was afforded significantly more resources that investigations into the ~386 other homicides in New York City every year, we should be continuing to question an uneven justice system where its not just that high-profile people can get away with crimes, but the government will also mobilize much quicker if they are the victim of crimes.

One thinks back to the 2008 financial crisis, when millions of Americans lost their homes due to the criminal behavior of Wall Street firms. Almost none of them were charged, but there was one case that year where an investment manager was arrested and charged with defrauding his clients. That was Bernie Madoff. Was it because his client list, and thus victims, were all wealthy elites? And thus it was important that they get restitution for what happened to them, simply because of their status in society?

Whatever the case is with Mangone, it is a continuing flaw in our justice system that some victims are more important than others, even if they suffered the same crime.